Vol. 34, No. 03 
IWTU start-up resumes in Idaho after December delay
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Cleanup & Remediation
Cleanup office shuffles leadership at WIPP, Portsmouth-Paducah
By the end of this month, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico will leave to become deputy manager of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office in Lexington, Ky., an agency executive said Tuesday. Carlsbad manager Reinhard Knerr, responsible for overseeing the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant since July 2020, is […]
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Transuranic Waste
Exit of Carlsbad boss for No. 2 elsewhere seen as surprise, but not shock
This week’s news that Reinhard Knerr will leave his job as manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office to take a deputy manager post at the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office was unusual but not shocking, industry sources said Thursday. Knerr is the second permanent Carlsbad Field Office manager since the spring of 2019. Deputy […]
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Vitrification & Grout
Glass-making at Hanford could continue through 2080s, DOE analysis estimates
By John Stang Hanford might not finish solidifying its most radioactive tank wastes until 2062 to 2084, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report released Thursday. Right now, Hanford’s legal deadline is 2052 to solidify the 56 million gallons of waste held in 177 underground tanks at the former plutonium production complex. Between 5 […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP ends 2022 on an uptick, recording 53 shipments during December
The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., had its busiest month of 2022 during December, receiving 53 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste. Forty shipments originated from the Idaho National Laboratory, 12 came from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, one came from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Central Plateau Cleanup urged to tighten up certain practices at Hanford’s 324 Building
While Department of Energy contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Co. is doing a good job on hazardous nuclear remediation within Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, it needs to tackle some safety risks, according to the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. Generally, the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a review published […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Hanford officials tell DNFSB pretreatment system should hold up over long run
Key parts of a pretreatment system for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant should hold up over decades, Department of Energy bosses and a contractor from the Hanford Site in Washington state told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last month. Managers from DOE and Washington River Protection Solutions told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Mo. Lawmakers seek more testing for school near FUSRAP site
Two members of congress from Missouri, a Republican senator and a House Democrat, want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do more testing for radiological contamination at a St. Louis area school. “We write to urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to conduct additional radioactive contaminant testing of Hazelwood School District’s properties,” […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE cleanup office making headway on technology development database
In December, the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management completed what its head of field operations calls the “beta phase” of a new electronic “dashboard” for tracking nuclear remediation technology development. All of the research-and-development data run through Environmental Management (EM) headquarters in Washington, D.C., has been entered into the system, Nicole Nelson-Jean […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: Wintry weather delays LANL; more time sought on WIPP permit; new EM-2 starts; Fleischmann wins gavel
Due to winter weather, onsite employees at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were allowed to come in late a couple of days this week, according to the lab webpage. Workers were allowed to report to work later than normal on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to snowy weather. The Wednesday […]